US-based accountancy software developer Expensify launched a corporate venturing unit called Expensify Ventures yesterday, revealing its first investment is in US-based receipting service Piper.
Founded in 2008, Expensify produces expense management software, its core product being a receipt scanning tool called SmartScan.
Expensify closed a $17.5m series C round concurrent to the fund’s launch that was led by venture capital firm OpenView Venture Partners. The round, which also included Redpoint Ventures, Hillsven Capital and Point Judith Capital, will fund the new unit.
The company had previously raised $10.2m from investors including cybersecurity company Barracuda Networks, which backed its $3.5m series B round in September 2014.
Piper’s technology is integrated into point-of-sale systems and automatically uploads receipts to the cloud so users can access them through a smartphone app instead of carrying around physical copies. The size of Expensify’s investment in Piper has not been disclosed.
Expensify plans to integrate Piper’s platform into its own offering, and will use Expensify Ventures to identify other startups in the travel, payment and financial technology sectors, commercialising their technologies through integration and joint marketing efforts.